The invention relates to an actuation device for pull-out devices, shelf boards, flaps or similar elements to be opened, in particular front elements, especially of kitchen furniture and office furniture, kitchen appliances and built-in kitchen appliances, product dispensing devices and similar components comprising a corpus, wherein the element to be opened is moveable by a drive unit relative to the corpus into an open position, the drive unit is activatable by control means, and the control means are provided with a front body sound sensor correlated with the front element.
WO 2006/017863 A1 discloses an actuation device for a pull-out device of a piece of furniture with a switch as control means that is arranged on the front element, for example, a front panel of a furniture pull-out device, for example, in the form of a pull-out storage unit. Also, it is possible to provide such control means on a door of a cabinet that contains a shelf board that is to be moved out, for example, from a corner cabinet. In such a piece of furniture, pull-out devices, shelf boards and the like are to be moved motorically into their open position, so that objects placed thereon can be gripped by an operator. It is a disadvantage in this connection that such a switch affects the overall appearance of a furniture front face.
DE 20 2007 006 818 U1 discloses a cabinet with one or several pull-out devices that can be moved by means of a motor drive out of the interior of the cabinet. For this purpose, an actuation device is provided that is activatable by control means that comprise a room microphone as well as a sound sensor for sound traveling through a body. The control means detect a body sound signal as well as a signal that is received through the room microphone. For this purpose, an operator is to knock on the front of the cabinet, for example, and this is detected by the body sound sensor arranged behind the front panel and an appropriate signal is passed on to the control unit. The room microphone is oriented in the direction of the front panel so that the signal also triggers sound waves that are detected with corresponding time delay by the room microphone. Based on the time interval the control unit is supposed to determine afterwards whether the signal in question is a knocking signal for activating the motoric drive for opening the cabinet or a false signal.
It is disadvantageous in this connection that, based on the combination of the body sound signal and the room microphone, knocking commands cannot be processed in a sufficiently dependable way. In particular, it is disadvantageous, that the necessary operating time and response time are considerable. Besides, disturbing noises may also trigger airborne sound waves that cause operating errors.
It is the object of the present invention to further develop an actuation device of the aforementioned kind in such a way that by means of a knocking signal the actuation device is to be activated in an operator-friendly manner and, moreover, operating errors can be precluded as much as possible.